SWAT forces way into West Side apartment building; two arrested

Manchester police secure the scene at 46 Dubuque St., where a man was arrested Tuesday morning after a brief standoff with police. (PAT GROSSMITH/UNION LEADER)

MANCHESTER — A report of a gun inside a Dubuque Street apartment where a wanted man refused to surrender to police resulted in some members of the Manchester Police Department's SWAT being sent to the scene about 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.

About 7 a.m., after an armored personnel carrier known as the BearCat — which can fit at least 10 officers — was positioned out front and officers repeatedly communicated with the man via bull horn, William Maurier, 33, no fixed address, was arrested without incident, according to Capt. Shawn Fournier, SWAT team commander.

Maurier, who is on probation/parole, was arrested on a charge of resisting arrest and was held on a probation violation for witness tampering in an unrelated case.

The incident began about midnight, when police went to the 7-Eleven, 85 South Main St., for a reported fight. Officer Cliff Ellston met with a 24-year-old man who said he had been in a fight with Jacob Valley, 19, of Manchester.

The man told police Valley had been calling and harassing his girlfriend when the couple encountered him outside his nearby Clinton Street residence. The two began fighting, during which Valley allegedly held out an object, wrapped in a bandanna, that the man thought was a gun, although he did not see it.

Police said Valley was wanted on arrest warrants for second-degree assault, simple assault and theft related to a domestic incident Sunday on Lake Avenue. He allegedly choked and punched a 19-year-old woman before leaving the Lake Avenue address with her purse. At that time, police had information that Valley might be in possession of a firearm.

Further information led police to believe Valley was at the 46 Dubuque St. address. He was, and police arrested him there after Tuesday morning’s brief standoff.

Police continued to surround the building, however, because they learned that Maurier was inside and refused to come out.

Fournier said the woman who answered the door refused to let the officers inside and the landlord told police he had no idea who was in the apartment.

Fournier said the building is known as a flop house where people crash and shoot up drugs.

However, a women who says she lives on the third floor said that went on in the second-floor apartment only, not the first- or third-floor apartments.

"It makes us all look like a bunch of drug addicts," she said. "I'm not a heroin or drug addict and I don't even drink. I wish I could afford to live in a better place."

A single woman with two kids lives on the first floor, she said, while she, her daughter and grandhcild live on the third.

About 7 a.m., SWAT team members forced their way inside and arrested Maurier without further incident.

Police had another woman in handcuffs, sitting on the ground, Tuesday morning. Fournier said investigators were trying to determine if there were warrants out for her arrest.

Another woman stood crying outside the cordoned area. She did not give her name but said her daughters, who she described as heroin addicts, were inside the apartment building.

She said she has tried to get them into a treatment program but there is a six-month wait in the Manchester area.

The 3-unit, 2½-story apartment building is owned by Maria Lambert, according to the city's online assessor's database. It was built in 1905 and is assessed at $134,200.

SWAT conducted a cursory search of the residence but did not recover a gun.

Investigators are applying for a warrant so they can do a more in-depth search of the apartment.